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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825678">What Branches Grow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaworuMakino/pseuds/KaworuMakino'>KaworuMakino</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Perfect Days [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Banana Fish (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Post-Canon, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 02:29:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,942</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825678</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaworuMakino/pseuds/KaworuMakino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Traveling around Japan with Eiji, Ash ponders what to do with his life. For Ash's birthday 2020.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Perfect Days [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860112</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Ash Lynx Day 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Branches Grow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This can be read as taking place during Eiji and Ash's trip around Japan from A Perfect Day. With that said it should also work as a standalone, all you need to know is that they're a couple and traveling together post-canon. </p><p>Content-wise there are brief and non-graphic references to Ash's past sexual assault.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"What do you want to do?"</p><p>It was a question I'd been asked countless times before but never had the time to answer. Not really. </p><p>When my guys asked me, it was always transitive. Said in place of another question. "How do we retaliate?" "What's the battle plan?" "What are our orders?"</p><p>Always momentary. Fleeting. What did I want to do right then, when the question was posed? No concern for any future further than our next strategy or skirmish. </p><p>Now, though, I felt the question hang above me with the weight of expectations I'd never been allowed to have. Expectations for tomorrows, next weeks, next months, even next years. Not just "maybe" versions of them either, but ones that were almost assured. That wouldn't be cut short, bled out, or violated by hands I didn't want to hold. The hands of others roaming across my body, not because they wanted me but because they wanted to see what they could do to me. What they could take from me. </p><p>Now, I knew what it was like to hold someone else's hand because I wanted to. To allow someone's hands to roam across my body because I wanted them to. </p><p>"What do you want to do?"</p><p>Eijj asked it so gently, and with so much more relaxed of a tone than I was used to. No panicked wondering about how to fight back rival gangs. No mental chess games as I tried to predict what Dino would do after predicting what I would do after predicting his initial reactions. Predictions and predictions, pawns making it to the opposite side of the board before either player had even moved a single piece. </p><p>No more thinking about how the wrong answer could lead to death. </p><p>Now, I faced an entirely different question:</p><p>What did I want to do with my life when it wasn't about to end at any moment's notice?</p>
<hr/><p>I didn't know know the answer on a grand scale, but for the moment Eiji was holding my hand in his and I was content to let it stay there. </p><p>"Look, a manta ray!" Eiji exclaimed, pointing at a dark shape moving closer to the front of the tank we were peering into. Eiji's eyes lit up with all the innocent wonder of a school child. I smiled. He looked so happy. </p><p>I turned my head to get a better look at the shape and...wow. The manta was sleek, flat, imposing and...just plain cool. Its fins (were they fins?) spread out so wide that its total size would have been terrifying if not for the glass separating its strange face from us. </p><p>I turned my head again to look back at Eiji, who was still wide-eyed. After a few moments he looked back at me and I blushed. Caught. He didn't tease me though, just squeezed my hand. </p><p>"What should we go see next?" He asked. </p><p>"Hm..." I glanced around at the various signs and arrows pointing to exhibits we hadn't seen yet. "Maybe the jellyfish?"</p><p>"Oooo, yeah!" Eiji exclaimed and pulled on my hand. I laughed and followed his lead up a flight of stairs to a room with several wall-length tanks and only the faintest of overhead lights, leaving illumination to just the alien-infested waters around us. Eiji and I stood, hand in hand, both of our mouths agape. </p><p>Then I noticed a quick blur of movement in my peripheral vision. Tension mounted in my shoulders and I snapped my head around, just to see a child run up to his mother and pull at her sleeve. </p><p>"Mommy, mommy, look at this one!"</p><p>I shuddered. Just a child. It was just a child. I took a few deep breaths and tried to get my bearings. Looking around the room, I saw bulbs and tentacles and body parts I couldn't even describe as jellyfish slowly drifted around us like ghosts with nowhere to go. </p><p>I noticed how sweaty and clammy my hand had gotten only when Eiji squeezed it. I looked down at him, his brow furrowed in worry. </p><p>"Let's go to the cafe," he said. </p><p>"It's okay Eiji," I said, contorting my mouth into some facsimile of a smile. "We can stay as long as you want."</p><p>"I want to go to the cafe," he said. "Will you come with me?"</p><p>I nodded. "Okay."</p><p>Eiji continued to squeeze my hand tightly as we made our way down flights of stairs and around corners until we found an empty booth to rest at. To our left were counters stacked with food. Above said counters were menus and price signs. I hadn't been thinking of currency in terms of yen for that long, but still everything seemed overpriced. To our right, meanwhile, was a busy gift shop. </p><p>"I will get you anything you want," Eiji said, reaching out across the booth and taking his hand in mine. His eyes were soft, but serious. "Or we can just go. I want you to be comfortable."</p><p>"Eiji...," I debated what to say. How to convince him to relax, to just take in more of the sights. </p><p>"I know you are searching for some white lie to tell me," Eiji said. </p><p>I shivered. He looked fierce, stubborn, unwilling to let it go. But also...a bit sad. </p><p>"We don't have to talk much about it if you don't want to," he said. "Although...I have an idea. I should have realized such a crowded place, with such dark lighting..."</p><p>"Eiji, it's not your fault!" I squeaked. </p><p>He looked up at me. I felt my eyes water a little bit. </p><p>"Aslan..."</p><p>"It's never your fault," I said. Nothing could be worse than him blaming himself. "I've had a good time with you today. Thank you for bringing me here. Maybe we can...stop at the gift shop then head back to the hotel."</p><p>"Okay," he said softly, giving my hand another squeeze. I squeezed back. "Whatever you want to do, Ash."</p>
<hr/><p>That night we were lying in bed together staring up at the ceiling. I wasn't tired enough to sleep and, though he didn't say as much, I knew Eiji didn't want to leave me awake and alone with my thoughts. </p><p>"You know what the prettiest thing I saw at the aquarium today was?" He asked softly. </p><p>"What's that, baby?"</p><p>"You."</p><p>I turned to face him. He was already looking at me and reaching a hand out. He brushed his finger lightly against my nose. It tickled. </p><p>"Eiji," I whispered, shaking my head. "You know that's not true. All those fish were so--"</p><p>"It is true!" He interrupted me and I was startled by both the force of his assertion and the fire in his eyes. "It is true, Aslan," he said, voice going down a notch, softening out. "You are the prettiest thing I see every day, and my favorite thing, my favorite person. All I want is for you to be okay. To do whatever I can for you. Whatever you want to do."</p><p>"Eiji..." I looked into his eyes, then up at the hotel room ceiling. What did I want to do? Tomorrow, surely we would find some other tourist attraction. Eiji would continue to show me around Japan, laughing and smiling, and I would love every minute of it. But...there was something else. What did I want to do in general, going forward? It all felt too good to be true. </p><p>"Sometimes..." I started softly. "Sometimes...I worry if this is okay. For me. I don't know what I want to do with my life. I've never had...hobbies. Not really. Reading, I guess? But even that was forced on me, in a way. By Golzine, by the tutors he hired. My concern was always just getting through the day. Surviving... avoiding... avoiding..."</p><p>I trailed off. <i>Avoiding hands,</i> I thought, but couldn't say. Didn't want to talk about what hands had done to me. </p><p>Eiji knew. He cared. And when he tentatively reached his fingers out to caress my knuckles, I didn't pull away. No longer wanted to avoid hands. Not his. </p><p>"Are you happy doing what we're doing?" He asked softly. "We can come up with something else. Figure it out. I don't want to just drag you around places if you don't like it."</p><p>I felt my shoulders relax a bit. Oh, Eiji. </p><p>"I love what we're doing," I said, shuffling my body closer to his, so our chests were almost touching. His face was so close to mine. So beautiful, his eyelashes, his shaggy bangs...</p><p>"I have never been happier," I said. And it was true. I felt myself begin to cry. Eiji, looking at me, began to as well. We cuddled up closer and rested our heads against each other's shoulders. </p><p>"Is it okay for me...to be happy? To...not know what to do next?" I asked. "I...right now I just want to stay with you. And I don't ever want to leave. Is it okay for me to just...be with you, and figure things out as I go?"</p><p>"Oh, Aslan," Eiji said softly. His breath tickled my neck. "Of course."</p><p>We kept crying into each other's shoulders a little, wrapped our arms around each other, and savored the warmth. Eventually, we drifted off to sleep.</p>
<hr/><p>The next day I asked Eiji to teach me about photography. He seemed surprised. I wasn't even sure how interested I was in taking pictures. I just knew it was something he loved, and something to enjoy doing with him. Something to try out. If I didn't know what I wanted to do, why not just take my chances on a whim, especially if it was a whim I could explore with Eiji?</p><p>Looking over at Eiji as he stood by my side in a wheat field, holding his camera out in front of us, I smiled. </p><p>"And this is how you zoom the focus in and out..." he said. </p><p>Here I was, asking him to teach me, and I was too wrapped up in my own head to fully listen. Too distracted by...</p><p>"Ash?" Eiji asked. "What's up?"</p><p>I smiled at him. </p><p>"What is that look for?" He blushed. </p><p>"Do you know what the prettiest thing I've seen today is?"</p><p>His blush intensified. "You...you...do not be silly! And also you are stealing my line!"</p><p>"You're the prettiest thing I've seen today," I said, tilting my head down and kissing his forehead softly. Eiji's face, eyes scrunched shut tight and cheeks aflame, was so cute. </p><p>"Aslaaan...what if someone sees us?"</p><p>"Then they'll see you. And then maybe they'll walk over here, just to say that they agree with me."</p><p>"Aslan!" Eiji opened his eyes, looked into mine with a gaze so soft, so...</p><p>I felt his lips press up against mine. I leaned into the kiss, brought my arms up around his back and squeezed. Just savored the feel of his body, so close to mine. </p><p>"You are being silly. And so inappropriate. I am your teacher right now," he play-pouted once we pulled out of the kiss. </p><p>"I'm sorry sensei," I said. "I just really wanted to say that to you. And...to kiss you."</p><p>Eiji blushed. "Well...I guess I did say we could do whatever you wanted. But pay attention! There's a pretty butterfly right there, and we should try to get a picture before it flutters off."</p><p>"Yeah, okay," I said, motioning over to the camera. "Let me see."</p><p>Eiji handed it to me and I held it up, fiddled with the buttons and knobs. </p><p>"Alright, so to zoom in..."</p>
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